What are restricted data fields and how can I access them?

Fields such as facial images, job code at visit as entered and date of birth are restricted in UK Biobank.   Example restricted field_ids are listed at the end of this article.   If a field is restricted, it will not be available in a UK Biobank Research Analysis Platform (UKB-RAP) project of any cost tier unless special permission has been granted.

Finding restricted fields

Restricted fields are marked as # in UK Biobank Showcase field lists, and say “This information is regarded as restricted …” on the UK Biobank Showcase field page.

For example, Category 100094 holds 6 data fields, including field 33 which is restricted.

Requesting access 

To request access to a restricted field, researchers should contact the UK Biobank Researcher Enablement team by submitting a ticket through the UK Biobank Community.  To avoid unnecessary delay, please include your AMS application ID, the field_id of each field being requested, a justification for the request and full details as described at the end of this article.

For Covid-19 vaccination fields the Principal Investigator (PI) of the AMS application should submit the request.

For a few restricted fields, permission will not be granted at all.  Some phased restricted fields are temporarily restricted, and will only be available when the restriction is removed.   For the majority of restricted fields, permission may be granted if the proposed use of the field is within the scope of the AMS application and is for health-related research in the public interest.   This will be assessed by the UK Biobank Epidemiology team.   Permission will not be granted if there are unrestricted alternatives that should be sufficient.   For example, the date of birth in field 33 is restricted so most researchers are expected to use a combination of year of birth in field 34 and month of birth in field 52.   Any request for field 33 should include an explanation of why year and month are not sufficient.

Derived data from particularly sensitive fields

For restricted fields that are particularly sensitive, such as date of birth, permission is not granted directly.   Permitted research groups are provided with a separate project inside their UKB-RAP application, containing a different set of EIDs, the restricted fields, and a set of data fields that are deemed essential for creating derived fields.   Researchers derive the fields they need and UK Biobank take a copy of the derived fields.   UK Biobank map the derived fields back to the original project EIDs and provide the rebadged data in the dedicated project, once the restricted data has been deleted.    There will be a negligible storage cost to the researcher UKB-RAP project for storing the file containing the derived fields.   There will be a small egress cost to the researcher's UKB-RAP project at the point where UK Biobank take a copy of the derived fields.    For UKB-RAP storage and egress costs, see the first few lines of the UKB-RAP Rate Card 

The process for particularly sensitive fields will entail delay. 

Particularly sensitive fields requiring a separate project and derived fields include the following:

Requests for particularly sensitive restricted fields should include a description of the proposed derived fields, together with a justification of the value of the research and an explanation of how it relates to the scope of the application.   UK Biobank prefer to only release the sensitive restricted data once.   Researchers should therefore consider carefully, at the outset of the request, all the derived fields they may wish to create. 

Covid-19 research

Record-table field 32040 COVID-19 vaccination records and derived tabular field 32041 When COVID-19 vaccinations administered have been provided by national NHS data sources for Covid-19 research only.   When requesting these Covid-19 vaccination fields, the PI should explicitly confirm that they will ensure that this data will only be used for Covid-19 research.

OMOP data

The OMOP data of field 20142 is no longer available to dispense, see review the Restriction of OMOP article.

Dispense a new UKB-RAP project

When access to a restricted field has been approved and then actioned, and you have been notified of this, it will be necessary to update your current UKB-RAP project or create a new UKB-RAP project and dispense data to it to receive the restricted fields.   For information on updating data please see this article: How to update dispensed data.

The restricted fields will only be available for processing within the UKB-RAP.   It is no longer permissible to download these fields.    If a researcher has previously been using basket downloads, and makes a new request to access any of the restricted fields, they will need to start using the UKB-RAP.

 

Example restricted fields

When researchers request access to any of these restricted fields, the request ticket should include the researcher's AMS application_id, the field_ids of the restricted fields being requested, and a short justification of the need for the restricted data.   For vaccination fields the request must come from the PI.    When requesting Covid-19 vaccination fields, the PI should explicitly confirm that they will ensure that this data will only be used for Covid-19 research.

If you need additional guidance or support please submit a ticket